06th Sep 2008
The SDLP and the Democrats
I met one of my favourite people for lunch this week. This man is a cross border body if ever there was one. A Northerner, he has worked at the highest levels of government in Brussels and Dublin and was one of Seamus Mallon’s advisers during the first power sharing administration, he is challenging and always a step or two ahead of the pace. A great mentor.
He suggested that the SDLP should look to the American democrats for inspiration, noting how many Irish politicians had attended the Democratic convention and how many friends Ireland and more specifically the SDLP had within that party.
He is right. The democrats are a broad church which unite around a series of core values. They are progressives, they are pluralist and secular in the positive sense of the word. They have also been close to Ireland since the beginning of the peace process in the early eighties always opposed to violence, always in favour of power sharing.
Unlike the Republican Party whose politics is conservative and nationalistic the DNC reminded us that politics is about people.
The simple moral of the Democratic project is people first. Talk about jobs, education, health, the future and even a first time senator with little real experience of government can run the establishment neck and neck to the White House.
The republican narritive is vote for us. We are tough and we are mean. We play on fear and talk about tomorrow as another threat not an opportunity.
Familiar or what?
Mark Devenport and O’Conall Street may have been drawing the parallels between Sarah Palin and Northern Politics this week. Question is, will a Barack Obama emerge to run a government about people and their needs?
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